Peugeot 505 GR

The top keyword search this January from all of you the reader is this particular French sedan. This is based on my Google Webmaster tools, yet I couldn't find one on my Shinystat. Did I miss something? The Shinystat however tells me that Lucie Pinder is the top search, this will be my homework. Note; milestone #4, 190 vs M535 and Citroen XM will have to wait.

I did mentioned my admiration for the car on previous article, there are two types of 505 that I have the privileged to own and drive; 505 GR and 505 GTI. Both have exemplary ride and handling, even if you make a hard turn at a speed the car maintain its balance composure. See my previous article on different engines they are fitted with, I would like to dwell further on other issues which essentially reflect my personal experiences on attempting to apply simple modifications on them.

505 GR; 1986, green avocado metallic, old style dashboard, luxurious blue velvet seat upholstery, large American bumper.

We maintained this car from brand new, and during its first 3 years it was standing still in our garage specifically for special drive occasion only. So when it was finally decided to sell the car, it was still in a pristine condition.

Ironically due to its much of the time had been standing still, the car suffer many times of air conditioning problems. On many special occasion of trip to Bandung (180 km away from Jakarta), its air cond refused to work. It turned out a sensor wiring to its valve purifier got loose, it was indeed a clumsy terminal.

When it was driven on bad road with many potholes and undulating surface, the car was perfect. High speed cruising is equally comfortable, but getting to such a speed is a bit drama. 505 GR was really under-power. In order to over take another car you have to make a very close bumper-bumper approach and a bit of gas pedal pumping to initiate enough momentum. On another occasion you need to put its nose under the back end of a truck or wait till it gets into bad surface road. Many traffic slows down on such a road and that's the only opportunity for 505 GR to nudge ahead.

GR has simple basic engine compare to its GTi sibling, no electronic nor vacuum sensors. It's a lot more reliable with the exception of engine over-heat and loss of clutch hydraulic pressure. By fitting larger electrical cooling fan with higher speed solved the heat problem. Apparently the engineer overlooked the heat load of aircond on a tropical congested traffic. Mine was then fitted with Mercedes Benz w123 280 cooling fan, it worked perfectly but it produced high pitch shrieking noise (from outside).

By the way the original fitted aircond was powerful and it came with nice distinct scent (a peculiar feature on this car). As with many other Pug we had managed to throw away its heater and fully sealed the car from its fresh air intake into the cabin. As its shutter lever never worked properly.

And for its clutch problem, it continuously broke the secondary pressure seal. You had to live with it and noted a consistent periodic check up regularly. Normally it was indicated by slightly oil leakage around clutch master ancillary, prior to its failure. Avoid excessive pressure build up on your clutch hydraulic by using original Valeo Clutch Kit - 1984-1986 Peugeot 505 S L4 2.0, complete set of clutch replacement is a peace of mind driving. Many people when it comes to replace a clutch disc, does not bother to change its bearing nor its pressure plate! Replace the lot, and you'll see the difference!

Other modifications that was imperative were on ignition and rear suspension. Fitting an electronic ignition saved the points as well as helped a tad of performance. The rear suspension was simply to soft and when it was fully laden it sagged the rear end which on occasion bottoming out and hit its undercarriage. We replaced the coil with Fiat 132's, since it was progressive coil it gave better and sharp handling. A cheap upgrade!

One of its best trait was awesome and beautiful ride, though it could never beat that of Citroen's it provided a very comfortable drive. You would never get tired on this car on a long trip, especially on those bad road. One celebrity who owned such car was Bruce Wayne, the actor playing Batman TV series back in late 60s.

We'll continue for GTi on next article! Meanwhile I hope you don't mine that as a reminder for gift inspiration on the coming Valentine's Day, a sexy picture is fitted within. It helps to motivate writing on my behalf.

Ooh, I almost forgot to mention the sumptuous and large perfect padding on the seat. The kind of seat you would never expect from any other maker of its era, in fact the only "lazy boy" beater seat ever fitted on a car!

Incidentally, if your front disc brake rotor gets worn out, upgrade its non ventilated OEM equipped with ventilated one: PEUGEOT 505 80-81 (ATE) Brake Rotors - Cross-Drilled Slotted - Rear

This is my first article on 3 series of exemplary ride-handling composure Pug 505 model. In fact as its composure is one of the best kind in the world; I consider 505 as one of rare vehicle next to Citroen DS, SM, CX as well as GS in terms of excellent ride technology.